It is often difficult to locate an item in a purse, such as a hand bag, carry all, makeup case, or the like, because the interior of the purse is dark and crowded with many items. It would be a benefit, therefore, to have a light system that could be detachably installed within the purse to provide light to the interior of the purse while searching for an item and which could be detached and used to illuminated keyholes and the like if desired. Because purses are typically crowded with a large number of items, a switch activated light can be accidentally activated and drained of power by contact with an item within the purse. It would be a further benefit, therefore, to have a light system that included a lamp control circuit including an illumination lamp that could be activated for a predetermined period of time by closing a momentary contact switch and which could not be reactivated until the momentary contact switch was released and the predetermined period of time had elapsed to prevent accidental draining of the light system battery power supply.